Manufacture This

The blog of the Alliance for American Manufacturing

The Bern is Felt on the Iron Range

Bernie Sanders has been up on the Iron Range, talking about the steel crisis. | Photo by Phil Roeder

Bernie Sanders talks about the effect of trade in Northern Minnesota.

Well, there’s a first this campaign cycle: A presidential candidate has visited northern Minnesota.

Bernie Sanders was in Hibbing on Friday morning, and while, yes, he gave a standard stump speech that spent a good deal of time criticizing rival Hillary Clinton for her support for the Iraq War and ties to Wall Street, you better believe the steel import crisis came up.

I do understand what’s going on up here on the Iron Range, about the loss of many, many, many hundreds of good paying jobs because cheap, Chinese steel is being dumped into the United States of America. Together, we’re going to end that. Bernie Sanders

Sanders has been a vocal critic of US trade deals, past and present, suggesting that they’ve contributed to rising income inequality. He spent Friday morning casting shade on NAFTA and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP); what's more, he suggested that Clinton’s opposition to the TPP might not hold once she’s in the White House. Clinton only opposed the pact – and cited its lack of a rule against currency manipulation while doing so – after catching a lot of heat from the TPP's critics on the American left.